Total War:Shogun 2

[curious]

as much as the Dragon Age 2 demo was overwhelming and short, the Shogun 2 demo is the opposite. The only downside is it is around 6 gigs. Napoleon was the first game in the series I completely skipped, but the original Shogun was one of my favourites and along with Gothic really got me in to pc gaming again.

in the demo you actually get to play the tutorial campaign which is a lot more than any other total war game which usually is just battles.
the diplomacy system looks much improved and now both your generals and agents actually get xp and can choose from skill trees (there might be as many skills as dragon age 2 even;)) the demo actually also lets you do nearly everything that the full version does besides being limited to only a portion of Japan and the building,skill and "mastery/tech" trees are truncated.
if you've never tried the series or been put off by the last entries in the series i highly recommend jumping on board now as i think this will be the best one yet.
also gamersgate still has a sweet deal on the preorder with getting 30% "cashback in bluecoins" immediately and a free copy of rome total war gold as well.

the music is great as well as is the overall art direction. even though dragon age 2 is coming out the week prior and i still have it preordered i'm tempted to hold off on it because i can't wait to throw countless hours away in shogun first.

[Nerevarine]

Good to hear. Thanks for the info, curious. I wonder if the leveling up of agents and generals, complete with "skill trees," was inspired by one of Total War's competitors, King Arthur? Either way, I think this is a solid step forward for the TW series; generals and agents "leveled up" before, but the player had no direct control over what traits or "skills" they acquired. Improved diplomacy is also a much-needed improvement. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the smaller scale of Shogun 2 when compared with recent Total War games, starting with the epic scale of Rome and onwards. The ability to create a vast empire in a historically accurate setting has always been the main reason why a history geek like me loved Total War, so to see them scale it back down to such a small area (Japan) is a slight disappointment. Still, looks very promising nonetheless, and I look forward to trying it out.

[zakhal]

Is the battle-AI as poor as in the previous games?

[Zaleukos]

Colour me skeptical. The games can be fun if taken for what they are, but the battles aside CA keeps adding features to the campaign that the AI are unable to handle.

The battle AI has always been stellar compared to the campaign AI (which handicaps the battle AI by building useless armies, not defending key positions, or just messing up the economy to the point where it cant afford proper armies):p

To be fair it is the battles that make Total War stand out, the actual campaign map and grand strategy part has many more problems and has been tacked on as an afterthought. If I play TW it is for the sight of a few hundred knights charging hapless peasants, not for the campaign. I much prefer games that have a diplomatic AI that consists of more than "if neighbouring human then attack neighbour, regardless of chance of winning" for the empire building and quasi-historical 4X gameplay.

As a history geek I also found it pretty annoying to have French noble families named after footballers:p

[SAGO]

bet the AI is gunna be as poor as it was in prievious games despite pr shit

[txa1265]

I just got the 30GB download completed and will inform of my impressions. Never played the original, but have liked the other Total War games.

[DArtagnan]

I never really cared for the concept of a strategic game with the emphasis on the tactical battles.

I'd rather they worked on the campaign structure, and simplified the battles.

There's something inherently wrong about the rhythm of these games, to me - that is, and they're also not suited for multiplayer - which is what I want from such a game.

But they're pretty :)

[porcozaur]

I just got the 30GB download completed and will inform of my impressions. Never played the original, but have liked the other Total War games.

u mean the game installed is 30 gb?

[JDR13]

I just got the 30GB download completed

Please tell me that's a typo…

[porcozaur]

well the kit is 12 gb

[txa1265]

Please tell me that's a typo…

All I know is that the Steam install page said 28.6GB required ... and my download at 10MB/sec, well ... I just left it running unattended ...

[JDR13]

You can reach 10MB/sec download speed? Damn.. I don't know what kind of connection you have but I wish I had it. :)

[txa1265]

You can reach 10MB/sec download speed? Damn.. I don't know what kind of connection you have but I wish I had it. :)

Cable with 'turbo boost' ... sounds like a gimmick ... until it works. Just to add to your jealousy - that was on my laptop over WiFi!

[JDR13]

I hate you. :D

Seriously.. I'm lucky to get 800-900kb most of the time. I have AT&T Uverse fiber optic, which is one of the faster services in my area.

[curious]

i get ~300kb usually through AT&T DSL. isn't the hard drive space required often times around double due to the temporary files of the download plus the installation.

[DArtagnan]

I got 11MB/s yesterday downloading the Lineage 2 client as a torrent ;)

I win!

(I uninstalled the game even faster)

[xSamhainx]

Good "angry Joe" review (http://angryjoeshow.com/2011/03/shogun-2-angry-review/) of the game, i think I may have to get this one.

[txa1265]

Here is my review (http://www.vgblogger.com/?p=9150)

[xSamhainx]

Damn, I havent seen a bad review of the game yet. Even tho I've never been one for the larger-scale battles (i like them more Warcraft or Age of Empires size), this is definitely on the short list of games to play.

[Twotricks]

I got the game , and fell in love with it.

I never played TW games before because I am not big strategy gamer. But i decided to give this one a go. And love it so much i went and bought Medieval TW2 as well.

I dont know how deep the game is (although it has at least x2 skills Dragon age has ;) ) But I love how your tactical skill really visibly influences combat outcomes.

In short.

Everyone should play this game ;)

[JDR13]

I have to admit, this game looks awesome, and it even has Ninja assassinations (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXw-Qlp8P3k).

Damn… I'm sorely tempted to give it a try, but I have way too many games in queue right now. Anyone play the original Shogun: Total War?